Cold Call

Wayfair has been around since the early days of ecommerce. But what now exists as a single, popular brand was once an unaffiliated collection of 240 websites selling very different things. Professor Thales Teixeira discusses the rise of internet sales and search engine marketing, and delves into the minds of the company’s executives as they built an online furniture giant from scratch.
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Since 1997, Hundreds of student-entrepreneurs have tested their ideas at Harvard Business School's annual Business Plan Contest. Here is what they have learned about success, failure, and themselves. From the HBS Alumni Bulletin.
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In the midst of the US debt crisis, Harvard Business School faculty offer their views on what went wrong and what needs to be done to right the US ship of state.
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At a panel discussion on entrepreneurship, professor William A. Sahlman and several successful start-up veterans discussed the case of John Osher, father of Dr. John's Products, Ltd., and the wildly popular battery-powered toothbrush, the SpinBrush. Key concepts include: Look for gaps in the existing market or product lines to exploit. Anticipate product knockoffs and plan accordingly. Raise money when you don't need it, so you'll have it when you do. Be quick to market with the initial product and improve as you go along.
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Three Harvard Business School professors—former Medtronic chairman and CEO Bill George, economist and entrepreneurship expert William Sahlman, and innovation and strategy authority Rosabeth Moss Kanter—offer their thoughts on the most significant business and economic developments of 2010. Key concepts include: Social networking is the most significant business development of 2010, says Bill George, noting that some 600 million people are now active on Facebook—and half of them spend at least an hour per day on the site. The problems of the Great Recession continued to dominate the economy in 2010, according to Bill Sahlman, who says that the popular media have grossly underestimated both the current deficit and level of debt in the United States. Rosabeth Kanter points out that new technology shined in 2010, in spite of the world's economic anxieties. She gives kudos to the Apple iPad, which accelerated the trend toward digital content.
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We have spent the past year mired in a global financial crisis that few saw coming and that will plague us for years to come. Such crises are gut-wrenching. Collectively and individually, we search for causes and solutions. Too often, we look for quick fixes that do long‐term damage, or we put the equivalent of duct tape on obvious problems, missing the true root causes. HBS professor William A. Sahlman argues that the macroeconomic problems were the result of terrible microeconomic decisions. The root cause of bad decision‐making resides in the nexus of culture, incentives, control and measurement, accounting, and human capital. We now have a unique opportunity to force a review of all the players in the financial system, from individual consumers to politicians and regulators to management teams at financial services firms. Key concepts include: Management needs a new kind of comprehensive analysis monitor. The new entity would take an objective, hard‐nosed look at major financial services firms on a holistic basis. The new monitor would learn from working with many players in an industry. Auditing the best and worst firms would create powerful tools for improving practice. Beyond introducing this new player to the broad system of corporate governance, the most important and most difficult changes are those required of managers, who must look hard at risk and reward.
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Harvard Business School professor William A. Sahlman's article on how to write a great business plan is a Harvard Business Review classic, and has just been reissued in book form. We asked Sahlman what he would change if he wrote the article, now a decade old, today. Key concepts include: A business plan can't be a tightly crafted prediction of the future but rather a depiction of how events might unfold and a road map for change. The people making the forecasts are more important than the numbers themselves. What matters is having all the required ingredients (or a road map for getting them), not the exact form of communication. The best money comes from customers, not external investors.
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The VC money "overhang" continues as investors compete to get into a small number of deals each year. How do smart venture firms approach the challenge? A report from the 11th Annual Venture Capital & Private Equity Conference.
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People are buzzing about two classes at HBS that showcase the School's new approach to teaching management. Hear from the instructors who lead them and alumni who took the plunge. John S. Rosenberg takes you there in this article from Harvard Magazine. Part two.
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Visit two classes that showcase HBS's new approach to teaching management, and hear from alumni who took the plunge. John S. Rosenberg sorts it all out in this article from Harvard Magazine. Part one of a two-part series.
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Twenty-five years after graduation, four members of the HBS Class of '75 reflect on the enterprising spirit that has characterized both their generation and their own careers.
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Two CEOs at the forefront of the transformation in the way businesses buy and sell goods—Scott Randall of FairMarket (HBS MBA '87) and Glen Meakem of FreeMarkets (HBS MBA '91—spoke with Professor Bill Sahlman recently about their paths to new business models and what they've learned along the way.
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